Wednesday battled back from two-down to earn a draw with a late double in the pouring rain at Cheltenham tonight.
We looked to be facing a third successive league defeat when the home side led 2-0 with only 20 minutes left but the Owls rallied to score twice and might easily have had a winner in added time.
And while it’s only one point gained in our aim of automatic promotion, the manner of the fightback will hopefully give the team a much-needed confidence boost going into Saturday’s home game against Lincoln.
As far as the table is concerned, we have moved to within a point of leaders Plymouth, now having played the same number of matches as them but with a far superior goal difference to that of the Pilgrims.
We now also sit four points clear of third-placed Ipswich but they have played one game less while Barnsley in fourth also have a match in hand on us but trail Wednesday by seven points.
Cheltenham looked lively from the start, the recalled David Stockdale pulling off a fine save from dangerman Alfie May and then denying Aidan Keena.
Wednesday thankfully looked a little sharper than at Forest Green on Sunday but it was still approaching half-time before we threatened the home goal, Barry Bannan’s 30-yard free kick curling just wide and then Will Vaulks seeing his long-ranger tipped over by Luke Southwood.
We began the second half promisingly, Michael Smith’s header blocked by Southwood from a Reece James cross and then nodding over the top in another attack.
However, that counted for nothing soon afterwards with Cheltenham striking twice in quick succession.
Dominic Iorfa made a hash of his attempted clearance from a cross and Keena seized to fire the hosts ahead on 61 minutes.
Iorfa then misjudged a header inside the box, May clipping the loose ball wide, but a second goal followed in the 70th minute, Stockdale pushing out a low long-range effort from Taylor Perry and May slotting home from the rebound.
At this stage, Wednesday looked set for another defeat but the revival began six minutes later when Aden Flint headed home from Bannan’s free kick.
With the Owls suddenly taking charge of the game, Lee Gregory missed a good chance when he turned and fired over from 10 yards before sub Mallik Wilks headed wide.
However, we were not to be denied and with three minutes of normal time left Gregory snatched the equaliser when he turned home Smith’s low cross from six yards and in front of the 1,500 travelling Wednesdayites.
We continued to push forward in search of a winner and twice went close to grabbing all three points in added time.
First, Dennis Adeniran missed a great chance when he fired over at the far post from close-in and then a cracking Vaulks effort from the edge of the box came back off the post with the last kick of the game to deny us victory.
Stockdale, Hunt (Adeniran 90), Iorfa (Flint 64), Palmer, James, Johnson, Vaulks, Bannan, Bakinson (Wilks 73), Gregory, Smith. Unused subs: Dawson, Brown, Dele-Bashiru, Famewo.